Tough single scene.... (Boise, Nampa, Meridian: wage, young professionals, centers)
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The economy there is good especially for go-getters and or educated people plain and simple. Unemployment rate is below national average by a nice margin. And I have been there just last month after posting my resume on Monster and Careerbuilder and had multiple responses for opportunities for high quality jobs. These weather stats are from a well known national weather source, I mistyped hottest month, its not June its July, so sorry. As per the single scene I didn't say its incredible, thats you. Its good. As I stated and you can do your own search there are 542 single women and over 600 single men ages 30-45 yrs old in Boise and thats just one matchmaker web-site. This is a good number for the size of Boise. As per the religion, which you didnt say anything but Ill post some stats from your city gov. Mormons 34%, Catholics 28%, other religion 38%. These are not opinions as you have posted, these are facts that anybody can look up. You def. fall into one of the 3 catagories that I have posted. Go out and enjoy Boise, dont sit in front of the computer all day and post thousands of posts, get out of the house. Over and out, I will not reply to any other post.
Your numbers for great singles scene is by pulling up the number of singles on a dating website? How scientific.
Your anecdote about jobs is no more or less relevant than anyone else's; if you browse this forum you'll find a handful of posters who are disgusted with the job prospects here. Some had to leave; others have not. It really depends on what you're looking for anyway. Boise is a good place to "retire" to or downscale to when you're in your 40's. It is not a great place to start a career.
I was out all weekend enjoying myself. Hiking, in fact. I'm in front of the computer for 20 minutes a night, so that hardly counts as all day. I continue to be entertained by some random guy who has never lived here telling the rest of us what Boise is like. Please continue.
Your numbers for great singles scene is by pulling up the number of singles on a dating website? How scientific.
Your anecdote about jobs is no more or less relevant than anyone else's; if you browse this forum you'll find a handful of posters who are disgusted with the job prospects here. Some had to leave; others have not. It really depends on what you're looking for anyway. Boise is a good place to "retire" to or downscale to when you're in your 40's. It is not a great place to start a career.
I was out all weekend enjoying myself. Hiking, in fact. I'm in front of the computer for 20 minutes a night, so that hardly counts as all day. I continue to be entertained by some random guy who has never lived here telling the rest of us what Boise is like. Please continue.
The comment I bolded is extremely subjective. I started a great career here in Boise and am much younger than 40. In fact I know many people in their 20's and 30's who have great career jobs here and some are from Idaho and some moved from out of state. It all boils down to luck, the type of job you are looking for and if you are applying for the same job that 15 other out of staters are applying for
Coming from Boise my entire life, I know that most of my high school friends, and most high schoolers I know, as well as Idaho/Boise State grads, did have to leave to state in order to really start a career (not just make a living). Some of the lucky few, especially when Micron, MPC and HP were humming, did get to stay.
If you talk to any job search service, the state DOL, or any university career services center (I have a college friend who works in BSU's), they will tell you this is generally the trend. Right now if you can crack government (federal, state or municipal) you can get some good career positions. In the legal field, not so much at all (although it is bad throughout the country). Civil engineering is also bad.
The level of industry just isn't here, and what is here is not large.
I met a wonderful man through Craig's List, which where I come from, we call it the Strangler's List. I just moved here a year ago. I put an ad on CL, and had tons of replies, weeded them out, and came up with 8 great men. I am not a skank, was in law enforcement for 20 years, and wanted to meet someone. Myself and my significant other have been together for 5 months, and we are very happy. I am in my 50's.............there are decent people on CL, you just have to ferret them out!
Excuse me, SoCalHiker, but the online date site stats you cite are evidence of the *weakness* of the local scene. Basically, desperation - that's what online dating is. If you're Mormon or a practicing Catholic, then Boise probably looks better because there is some ongoing community structure to fit into, but if you're not it doesn't look so good. And really, what kind of singles life is going to be generated in a town where one-third of the population is Mormon and another 28% identify as Catholic (almost 2/3). It doesn't seem like you've picked up a lot of insight living in multicultural Southern California (hard to believe LA). Since Yahoo is my browser home page, I read the same kinds of surveys you do. Speaking professionally as someone very familiar with social research and surveys, and personally as an older single male who has lived from coast to coast and abroad, these surveys are almost invariably crap, most put together by conservative magazines with arbitrary categories and definitions that usually don't reflect the realities of everyday life.
I currently live in one the most recreationally active, outdoorsy, eco-friendly and so-called healthy small cities in the country per surveys (not too far from Boise), the kind that you would think is, wow, friendly. And yet it is the most unfriendly place I've ever lived, and is universally recognized as such by college age to retired - even by people who have been here for a decade or more. But you'd never know that reading the surveys or passing through, where on the surface everyone seems smiling and helpful - and there are often letters in the local daily telling about such experiences. As I think other people here are trying to tell you, on the ground things usually look very different than what you imagine from afar. I'd only add that the kinds of stats you've presented, and the demographics I looked at on the way to this site today - starting from a Men's Health survey posted on Yahoo today that says Boise is the best town in the country for men - are exactly the kind that will keep me away (plus, it's a 45 winding road minutes each way to the closest x-c ski area, and why live in the mountain north if you aren't going to be closer to winter recreation).
I met my bride on a Christian AOL chat room back in '98 - I never used any of the online or TV advertised dating places, but try such a chat room, you may be surprised! My wife is almost my exact image, save for she's a beautiful woman. We come from similar backgrounds despite the 10 year difference in our ages and she often finishes my sentences for me. Of course it helps to share beliefs as well, and we do share our faith. Just a thought, in case anyone's still looking...
Without reading the entire thread, I'll give you the same advice I give to everybody complaining about the single scene.
Go and learn to dance. Country, hip hop, ballroom, whatever. It puts you in a position to touch, rub up against, be close to and generally interact with a large number of people in a safe and controlled environment. You will also learn where to go to have fun, who has the best bands and so forth. Before too long you'll develop the skill and confidence to dance in a bar or grange or wherever. Your confidence will go up, your physical conditioning will improve, etc.
My first date with my wife was to take her out dancing. 13 months later we were married. It works.
I've always thought about doing this and it sounds like a good idea.
Also, I too have found it difficult to meet people here although everyone does seem nice......but is it just superficial? Difficult to say.
A friend (my approx. age) and I have agreed that neither of us have ever seen as many pretty woman (per capita) than here. Don't know if they are single, married, conservative/religious, liberal, etc. but, when we have a drink in BoDo it seems like there are tons of attractive woman everywhere. My friend is from the east coast and I am from the midwest and we both have lived in larger metropolis's. That being said, I have had little success in meeting anyone but I am not near as social as I used to be either.
Sorry if I already mentioned this, but try meetup.com. There's a couple of groups that seem very active and things like road cycling, wine tasting and hiking groups seem like great places to meet people. There's singles-focused ones too. I just moved here yesterday and dont know a single person (aside from my husband) so I'm hoping to make new friends through these groups... and sometimes friends leads to dating, obviously. Might as well do something you enjoy while meeting like-minded people?
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